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Charlene Marilynn D'Angelo (born June 1, 1950, Hollywood, California) is an American R&B singer. She is best known as Charlene and also for her 1982 Pop music song "I've Never Been to Me". She is considered a one-hit-wonder.
Charlene was christened by her mother as Charlene Marilynn D'Angelo in 1950. However, despite her long name, she would change it to simply as Charlene for her record label. In 1973 she signed on with the legendary record label Motown Records. She signed under it as "Charlene Duncan". She released her first single from the label in January 1974 called "All That Love Went to Waste". The song however, failed to gain success for Charlene. She next appeared on Motown's Prodigal label three years later with "It Ain't Easy Comin' Down," which was credited to Charlene, though an album issued the same month had "Charlene Duncan" on the spine (confusingly, it was titled "Charlene"). Another album in 1977 called Songs of Love had been a repackaging of Charlene's song "I've Never Been to Me", however, it missed a spoken bridge. She released the single first in 1977, but it initially had no success. The single only reached #97 on the Pop charts.
Charlene originally recorded "I've Never Been to Me" in 1976, and in 1977 it reached #97 on the USA's Hot 100 singles chart. When re-released in 1982 the single reached #3 in the USA, and #1, by June 1982, in the UK. Charlene was signed to Motown Records, but this has been her only hit.
Charlene did two versions of the song. The version which was initially released was actually the second version which Charlene recorded. Her original version (which became the most popular) has an expanded bridge, over which the singer makes an impassioned comparison between the non-committal "fantasy about people and places as we'd like them to be," versus the committed real love of a family.
In 1982, Tampa, Florida disc jockey Scott Shannon, then at WRBQ, started playing it, by which time Charlene had moved to England and was working in an Ilford, Essex sweet shop. Audience reaction was impressive, and spread quickly, resulting in the song's re-issuance by Charlene's label, the version WITH the original spoken bridge. The re-release became a huge hit in England as well.
There are many misconceptions about this song. In the spoken bridge, the use of the line "I've been to crying for unborn children" was not written about abortion. The line refers to a woman who is at a point in her life that she wished she had taken the time to have children. However, this was deemed too close to feminist issues and when Charlene's song was first released in 1976, the version used was the one without the spoken bridge. When the song became an unexpected hit in 1982 it was the version WITH the spoken bridge intact that was released. It has also been widely reported that the 1982 single was a re-recording, it is not.
Originally written from a male point of view, the song was rewritten by Ron Miller for Charlene. Mr. Miller’s version is sung to a housewife who wishes that she could trade her everyday life for the exciting, fantastic life led by the singer. The singer tells of some of the highlights of her life, but the tone is bittersweet and she wishes that someone had told her what she is telling the listener. She has learned what is important, but now it is too late. She finds her life hollow and without purpose, having lost her real self years before — the "me" she has never been to, is the life that she would have led if she hadn't been lured away by false ideas.
When this song was first released in the USA, in 1976, Charlene's full name was Charlene Duncan through her marriage to record producer Larry Duncan, but when the song was released for a second time in 1982, the name she had taken was Charlene Oliver because of her marriage to Englishman Jeff Oliver.
It soon rose to the top of the Pop charts and Adult Contemporary charts that year. Her LP album I've Never Been to Me, released in 1982 proved to also be successful for Charlene. Her song was one of the biggest hits of the year and became a standard in Pop music.
She released another song the next year, penned by the same songwriters responsible for "I've Never Been to Me," called "Used to Be", a duet song with Stevie Wonder, which didn't even make the Pop top 40; only reaching #46 on the Pop charts. Both records were listed as the third and fourth worst records of all time by Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell in their 1991 book, "The Worst Rock n Roll Records of All time." Charlene was never able to follow-up the success of her one big hit "I've Never Been to Me", but she continued to record and release songs to the public. She released another album in 1983, but was not so successful.
"I've Never Been to Me" was featured as the opening song to the movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). The song is mimed onstage by two Sydney drag queens at the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville, Sydney, Australia. The song is sent up par excellence, including a scene where a plastic baby doll is thrown into the audience by one of the performing drag queens.
Because of her one big hit, Charlene became a one-hit-wonder in music. Charlene and her big hit "I've Never Been to Me" was featured on VH1's 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders show, hosted by William Shatner in 2002. Her position on that list was at #75.
In 2006, "I've Never Been to Me" was released as one of the songs on Sing Star Anthems, one of the popular Sing Stars.
Charlene is now married and runs a sweet shop in Ilford, Essex.
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